Peter Graves (actor)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Aurness (born March 18 1926 [1]), better known as Peter Graves, is an American actor. He is best known for his starring role in the television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973 (and again from 1988 to 1990). He won a Golden Globe award in 1971 for his role as Jim Phelps in the series. He also received nominations for Emmy awards and Golden Globe awards in other seasons.

Graves was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Rolf Cirkler Aurness and Ruth Duesler, descendants of German, Norwegian and English immigrants; his brother is actor James Arness (Gunsmoke). Graves attended Southwest High School (Minneapolis, Minnesota), class of 1944 and the University of Minnesota, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.

Graves has made more than 70 screen and TV films and series. He is also well known for the following roles:

The rancher and single father to child actor Bobby Diamond on the Saturday morning TV series during mid-50's, "FURY" The story about a horse and the boy who loved him.
Price, one of the POW's held in Stalag 17
Captain Clarence Oveur in Airplane! and Airplane II: The Sequel.
Colonel John Camden on the WB's 7th Heaven.

During the 1990s, he hosted the documentary series Biography on A&E. He also acted in a number of films featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, which subsequently featured running jokes about Graves' Biography work and presumed sibling rivalry with Arness.

Graves has been married to Joan Endress since 1950. They have three daughters, Kelly, Claudia and Amanda.

He has also recently starred in a GEICO commercial.

[edit] Filmography

Winning Your Wings (1942) (short subject)
Up Front (1951)
Fort Defiance (1951)
The Congregation (1952)
Red Planet Mars (1952)
Stalag 17 (1953)
War Paint (1953)
East of Sumatra (1953)
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)
Killers from Space (1954)
The Yellow Tomahawk (1954)
The Raid (1954)
Black Tuesday (1954)
Fort Yuma (1955)
The Long Gray Line (1955)
Robbers' Roost (1955)
Wichita (1955)
The Naked Street (1955)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
It Conquered the World (1956)
Hold Back the Night (1956)
Canyon River (1956)
Beginning of the End (1957)
Bayou (1957)
Death in Small Doses (1957)
Wolf Larsen (1958)
A Stranger in My Arms (1959)
A Rage to Live (1965)
Texas Across the River (1966)
The Ballad of Josie (1967)
Mission: Impossible vs. the Mob (1968) (compilation of episodes released to European theaters)
Sergeant Ryker (1968)
The Five Man Army (1969)
Sidecar Racers (1975)
The Mysterious Monsters (1976) (documentary) (narrator)
High Seas Hijack (1978) (in English version)
The Clonus Horror (1979)
Survival Run (1980)
Airplane! (1980)
The Guns and the Fury (1981)
Savannah Smiles (1982)
Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
The Winds of War (1983)
Number One with a Bullet (1987)
Addams Family Values (1993)
House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Men in Black II (2002)